Time to contemplate the presidents
Monday is Presidents Day, and banks, financial markets and government offices will be closed.
The federal holiday specifically honors the birthday of George Washington, who led the Continental
Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War, presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and was the first president of the United States.
Various states also honor President Abraham Lincoln, and some even mention President Thomas Jefferson, who was actually born in April.
Current thinking is to celebrate the office of the presidency, rather than a person. The legacies of Washington and Jefferson have been called into question because both, despite privately expressed misgivings, owned people who were enslaved.
That is a reversal from past centuries, when the Founding Fathers weren’t merely admired, but idolized. The fresco of the Capitol Rotunda, “The Apotheosis of Washington,” attests to that high regard.